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The NintendoWare Bezel Engine is a Nintendo developed engine/middleware for use on the Nintendo Switch. It is the successor to NintendoWare. While Nintendo uses it internally, it is more for making third party development easier. It was announced properly in April 2018 at GDC.
Main Features[]
- Built-in shader system (PBR)
- Post effects
- 3D physics engine (using NVIDIA's PhysX system)
- 2D physics engine (using Box2D or LiquidFun)
- Scripting (via Lua) and a dedicated scripting debugger
- Networking system (Nintendo's peer-to-peer Pia network system or NEX)
- Nintendo Switch System Feature support (ex. HD Rumble and the IR Motion Camera)
- Complete asset building system
Expendability[]
Bezel Engine is incredibly extendible for developers, allowing for modular capabilities inside of the engine itself. As well as that, developers are able to combine any library with Bezel Engine to make it work. Open source libraries, proprietary/confidential libraries, and also commercial libraries are able to be combined with Bezel Engine, forming a more modular developer environment.
Bezel Engine is also "technically" backwards compatible with NintendoWare, meaning that developers who have used the software before should be more familar with it, as well as having the ability of porting over assets and audio that they've made to Bezel Engine.
Free and Open Source[]
The runtime files for Bezel Engine are completely free and open source which are included when a developer installs it. However, Bezel Engine is a Nintendo developer tool, and as such is confidential. It's source is not able to be distributed outside of Nintendo or a game developer's studio unless granted exclusive permission from Nintendo. To put it simply: Bezel Engine is FOSS, but only if you are a Nintendo developer.
Games using Bezel Engine[]
First Party[]
Note: Some games on the list may not be confirmed to use Bezel Engine, as developers using Bezel Engine are required to show that the game is in-fact using the engine in the game at some point. Some games on the list (ex. Super Mario Party and Tetris 99) show in the credits the Bezel Engine logo or the copyright information "Made with NintendoWare Bezel Engine."
- Super Mario Party
- Tetris 99
- Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training for Nintendo Switch
- Super Mario Bros. 35
- Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics
- Pac-Man 99
- Mario Party Superstars
- WarioWare: Get It Together!
- Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain
- Everybody 1-2-Switch!
Third Party[]
Note: Nintendo has confirmed the existence of at 33 "non-Nintendo" or third-party retail titles that use Bezel Engine. However, they do not list all of the games that use it. This list may be incomplete.
- Vroom in the Night Sky
- Sumikko Gurashi: Sumikko Park e Youkoso